with one who is selecting some choice barrels to fill an order. He turns a speckled one over many times before he leaves it out. If I were to tell what is passing in my mind, I should say that every one was speckled which he had handled; for 5 he rubs off all the bloom. Cool evenings prompt the farmers to make haste, and at length I see only the ladders here and there left leaning against the trees. It would be well if we accepted these gifts with 10 more joy and gratitude. Some old English customs are suggestive at least. It appears that " on Christmas eve the farmers and their men in Devonshire take a large bowl of cider, with a toast in it, and, carrying it in state to the orchard, they salute the 5 apple trees with much ceremony, in order to make them bear well next season." This salutation consists in "throwing some of the cider about the roots of the tree, placing bits of the toast on the branches," and then, "encircling one of the best 10 bearing trees in the orchard, they drink the following toast three several times : 15 "Here's to thee, old apple tree, Whence thou mayst bud, and whence thou mayst blow, Hats full caps full! Bushel, bushel, sacks full! And my pockets full, too! Hurra!” Also what was called "apple howling" used to be practiced in various counties of England on 20 New Year's eve. A troop of boys visited the different orchards and, encircling the apple trees, repeated the following words: 25 "Stand fast, root! bear well, top! Pray God send us a good howling crop : Every bough, apples enow!" They then shout in chorus, one of the boys accompanying them on a cow's horn. During this ceremony they rap the trees with their sticks. This is called "wassailing" the trees, and is thought by some to be a relic of the heathen sac- 5 rifice to Pomona. Herrick sings: Wassaile the trees that they may beare For more or less fruits they will bring 10 Homer: a Grecian poet, often called the Father of Poetry. Herodotus: the greatest of the Grecian historians. — Ulysses: one of the heroes of the Trojan war. Alcinous a king famous in the story of the Argonauts; the father of Nausicaa.- Tantalus : a fabled king who was punished by the gods. He was put into water up to his neck, but when he tried to drink the water moved away and left him still thirsty. Our word "tantalize" is made from his name. - Edda: one of the books containing accounts of the Scandinavian gods.— indigenous: native. — savory: good to the taste. perforated: made holes in. musquash: the muskrat. - copious: full. Pomona: the goddess of fruits. SUMMER AND WINTER PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY (1792-1822), an English poet, was born in Sussex County. At the celebrated school, Eton, he, a sturdy, fearless lover of liberty, rebelled against the school custom of fagging, kept aloof from school sports, and read books that 5 were mysteries to the other boys. His tart temper half angered, half amused his companions. Hence he was often "surrounded, hooted, baited like a maddened bull until he roared in wrath." "Mad Shelley" his companions called him, and in the eyes of the sober-minded Englishmen of his day he was "mad Shelley" 10 to his death. An expulsion from the University of Oxford for refusing to answer questions about an infidel pamphlet that he had written, a quarrel with his father, an unhappy marriage at nineteen, a separation from his wife at twenty-two, a second marriage, this 15 time to a gifted woman who was to edit his poems after his death, a seizure by consumption, a few years in Italy, a sudden death from an overturning boat, - these are the principal events of his manhood. In spite of the many irregularities of his life, those who knew 20 Shelley best found in him much to admire. To them he was 25 tender, generous, fearful of nothing except what was low and base, warm in his love for the poor and the oppressed. Southey welcomed him to his house; Horace Smith was his friend; Leigh Hunt and Lord Byron were his intimate associates. Not for this set of readers or for that, but for all who love what is loftiest and best in poetry, Shelley must always seem among the kings of song. - WILLIAM SHARP. We doubt whether any modern poet has possessed in an equal degree some of the highest qualities of the great ancient 30 masters. - MACAULAY. It was a bright and cheerful afternoon, All things rejoiced beneath the sun, the weeds, It was a winter such as when birds die In the deep forests; and the fishes lie 5 10 A wrinkled clod, as hard as brick; and when 15 Among their children comfortable men translucent: clear. |